Pennsylvania’s Department of Health announced the winners of 27 medical cannabis dispensary permits on Thursday. The licensees now have six months to become fully operational, with medical marijuana sales expected to begin in the state sometime next year.

The line of people outside Blüm Reno extended around the building's front and partially down its side.

About 65 customers stood at 8:45 a.m. Saturday outside the South Virginia Street marijuana dispensary, waiting for the front door to open. No longer restricted to medicinal cannabis only, the dispensary had opened at midnight that day — the exact first moment it could legally sell recreational cannabis under Nevada law. It remained open for about six hours and closed briefly before again opening at 9 a.m.

Some customers, eager for the first chance to buy recreational cannabis, shouted out how many minutes remained until opening. Fifteen, then nine, then five.

Marijuana stocks have soared as state after state in the U.S. has legalized marijuana for medical or recreational use. The market potential is huge, with some estimating that the marijuana industry in the U.S. could generate sales of more than $18 billion by 2020.

But focusing only on the U.S. is nearsighted -- literally. There are significant opportunities for investors looking to profit from the expanding marijuana industry in other countries. Here are several important areas across the world with growing marijuana markets along with some of the marijuana stocks that could benefit from that growth.  

Terra Tech Corp (OTCMKTS: TRTC) appears to be one company that might survive the cannabis industry shakeout. 2016 was a stellar year for companies in the fast-growing cannabis industry, but 2017 has turned out to be much tougher than originally expected. Take the case of Terra Tech Corp (OTCMKTS: TRTC), which was a microcap darling in 2016, but has fallen on harder times in 2017.

The state began accepting applications Friday from those wishing to grow and sell marijuana for medical use, but when the drug might make into the hands of patients is still anyone’s guess.

That will depend on how many apply for a limited number of licenses.

The only piece of the timeline set for the birth of this new industry is Sept. 18. By 4:30 p.m. that day, all dispensary and cultivation applications must be hand-delivered to the Arkansas Alcoholic Beverage Control Division in Little Rock. Only then will the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Commission begin reviewing the applications.

On December 28, 2016, the Massachusetts state legislature voted to delay sales of recreational marijuana for six months. Originally, licensing for cannabis shops was set to begin on January 1, 2018, under the measure, but the delay set by legislators moved the date to July 1, 2018. Legislators cited needing more time to tinker with the measure as the reason for enacting the delay. Personal use, possession, and cultivation of marijuana all became legal on December 15, 2016.

From Bill Hall: In last week’s Money and Markets article, I told you about how one of America’s biggest sin stock industries is positioning itself to profit from the expected legalization of marijuana at the federal level in the U.S.

In that article, I discussed how Big Tobacco executives have been exploring the opportunities of legal marijuana since the 1970s.

Banks have mostly chosen to stay on the sidelines of the cannabis rush, deterred by the regulatory uncertainty around an industry that is still illegal at the federal level and concerns that the Trump administration seems opposed to legalization efforts.

But it may be a bigger challenge than financial institutions realize to keep their hands completely clean of the marijuana business. The burgeoning sector touches not just those who grow and sell pot in states where it is legal, but agricultural supply providers, commercial real estate holders of lands for farming marijuana, attorneys and lobbyists advocating for the new industry, and many more ancillary businesses.

On July 22, an estimated 200 women in the cannabis industry will gather for what’s being called an “empowerment summit” in downtown Los Angeles. The concept? To teach one another the negotiation skills, assertiveness, and business savvy necessary to thrive in the quickly growing cannabis market.